This patent relates to base pads for supporting products such as major home appliances. More specifically, this patent relates to a base pad for supporting a major home appliance in which the base pad is formed from a formed paper or plastic tube that has been folded into a rectangular frame.
Protecting major household appliances from shock and vibration during manufacture, shipping, storage and display is a constant challenge for appliance manufacturers. Numerous protective bases have been tried, including traditional wooden pallets, paper honeycomb base pads such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,805; molded plastic skids such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,146,205 and 4,183,491; corrugated pads (U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,154); and composite structures made from multiple materials such as wood and polystyrene (U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,892), wood and corrugated board (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,863,024 and 5,996,510), cardboard and polystyrene (U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,355), paperboard and polystyrene (Muyskens U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,527), and paperboard, polystyrene and corrugated (Muyskens U.S. Pat. No. 6,264,157). Some of these base pads have low recycle ability, while others have limited cushioning effectiveness, low strength, or susceptibility to certain environmental conditions such as exposure to water.
Thus it is an object of the present invention to provide an appliance base that is strong yet can be easily recycled.
Another object of the invention is to provide a base pad design that can be easily modified to accommodate various product sizes and weights.
Further and additional objects will appear from the description, accompanying drawings, and appended claims.